How To Position Your Agency

Summary

The 'Grow with Clutch' webinar offers a six-step framework for agencies to develop a unique value proposition, stand out in the market, and attract ideal customers. Experts Greg Carter and Floran Dude guide service providers through understanding effective positioning, crafting messaging, and leveraging Clutch profiles to convert prospects into customers. Real-world examples and a hypothetical case study demonstrate how agencies can refine their focus and messaging to achieve consistent lead generation and shorter sales cycles.

Takeaways

• 😀 The webinar aims to help service providers develop a unique value proposition to stand out in a crowded market and attract ideal customers.
• 🎯 The Clutch mission is to empower better business decisions as the leading marketplace of B2B service providers.
• 🔍 The default agency positioning often leads to inconsistent lead generation, long sales cycles, and price-driven discussions, which can hurt margins and profitability.
• 🚀 Effective positioning involves making your product or service stand out as different and better than alternatives, meeting criteria of clarity, difference, and specificity.
• 📈 To establish good positioning, understand what effective positioning is, craft messaging that resonates with your audience, and implement a six-step framework.
• 👥 Defining your target audience involves understanding demographics, psychographics, and firmographics to identify ideal clients and preferred types of clients.
• 🔎 Analyze the competition to find positioning gaps, such as undersolved problems, underserved ICPs, and poor solutions, which can help you insert yourself into the market effectively.
• 📊 Evaluate your current position honestly by talking to current customers and prospects to understand how they perceive you, and establish your desired position accordingly.
• 🛠️ Craft your unique program by focusing on how you can better serve your ICP, solve a specific problem, and communicate your point of view through a clear, concise, and memorable message.
• 📚 Use real-life examples and case studies, like the Avis 'We try harder' campaign, to illustrate the effectiveness of clear and focused positioning in the market.
• 📉 Avoid common pitfalls such as line extension trap, overcomplicating your positioning, and being too neutral, which can dilute your message and hinder your ability to attract the right kind of customers.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the 'Grow with Clutch' webinar?

The main purpose of the 'Grow with Clutch' webinar is to provide service providers with a framework to develop their unique value proposition, stand out in a crowded market, and attract their ideal customers.

Who are Greg Carter and Floran Dude, and what are their roles in the webinar?

Greg Carter is the Director of Marketing at Clutch with over 10 years of experience in building marketing campaigns. Floran Dude is the Demand Generation Manager with experience in crafting messaging for hundreds of agencies. They are the presenters of the webinar, guiding the audience through the process of improving their positioning and messaging.

What is Clutch's mission in the B2B service provider marketplace?

Clutch's mission is to empower better business decisions as the leading marketplace of B2B service providers.

What are the five common problems faced by the majority of agencies according to Floran Dude?

The five common problems are inconsistent lead generation, long sales cycles, price discussions instead of value, lack of an ideal client definition, and intense competition leading to price comparison.

What does effective positioning mean in the context of the webinar?

Effective positioning means making your product stand out in people's minds as different and better than alternatives. It must be clear, different, and specific to be memorable and stay top of mind with the right kind of people.

Can you provide an example of a company with strong positioning from the webinar?

An example given is a software development company in the healthcare sector that specializes in digital health and wellness web, mobile, AR/VR solutions, making them an obvious choice for healthcare providers looking for such expertise.

What is the six-step framework for crafting effective positioning as discussed in the webinar?

The six-step framework includes defining your target audience, analyzing the competition, evaluating your current position, establishing your desired position, crafting your unique program, and closing the messaging gap.

What is the importance of having a clear and concise message according to the webinar?

A clear and concise message is important because it helps to express your value proposition in one sentence, making it easy for prospects to understand what you do, who you do it for, and what results they can expect.

What is the 'Mobile Rocket Program' mentioned in the script, and how does it serve as an example of good positioning?

The 'Mobile Rocket Program' is a part of the example company 'Launchers', which focuses on building and launching scalable education mobile app MVPs for early-stage at-tech ventures in 30 days or less. It serves as an example of good positioning by being clear, specific, and memorable, and by addressing a specific audience's needs.

What are the three pitfalls to avoid when establishing your positioning according to the webinar?

The three pitfalls to avoid are the line extension trap (trying to be too broadly positioned), over complicating your positioning (unable to explain it in one sentence), and being too neutral (not taking a clear stance or opinion in your messaging).

How does the webinar suggest handling the situation where an agency has a diverse client base across different industries?

The webinar suggests creating separate brands for different verticals or customer profiles, allowing the agency to specialize and appear as a dedicated provider for each segment, even though they are part of the same larger agency.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Introduction to Grow with Clutch Webinar

The webinar titled 'Grow with Clutch' introduces a six-step framework aimed at developing a unique value proposition for service providers to stand out in a crowded market. It targets a diverse audience, from those with established positioning to new entrants. The purpose is to enhance their Clutch profile and attract ideal customers. Greg Carter, a marketing director with over 10 years of experience, and Florian Dude, a demand generation manager, co-host the webinar. They discuss the importance of effective positioning and the negative impacts of the default approach most agencies take, such as inconsistent lead generation and long sales cycles. The session promises to address real-world positioning, provide examples from Clutch profiles, and offer a framework for crafting resonant messaging.

05:02

🔍 Understanding the Current Default Agency Positioning

This section delves into the default positioning of 99% of agencies, highlighting common problems such as inconsistent lead flow, lengthy sales cycles, and price-driven competition. The speakers emphasize the need for agencies to move away from a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to a unique positioning within their niche. They illustrate the benefits of having a clear ideal client profile and the importance of value discussions over price negotiations. The goal is to achieve a consistent lead generation and shorter sales cycles by attracting the right kind of customers and becoming the obvious choice for a specific service.

10:02

🚀 Crafting Unique Positioning and Messaging

The paragraph outlines the process of moving from the current default positioning to a unique and desirable one. It discusses the importance of clear, realistic, and memorable positioning that differentiates a product or service. Using real-life examples from Clutch, the speakers demonstrate the effectiveness of specific positioning in the healthcare sector. The paragraph also introduces the concept of 'actual positioning' versus 'desired positioning' and the importance of aligning the two through consistent messaging and strategy.

15:05

🎯 Defining Target Audience and Analyzing the Market

This section focuses on the first step of the six-step framework: defining the target audience by considering demographics, psychographics, and firmographics. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the ideal customer's needs and fears to create precise messaging. The paragraph also discusses analyzing the competitive landscape to identify positioning gaps and underserved markets, using the example of a hypothetical mobile app development agency called 'Launchers' to illustrate the process.

20:05

🛠️ Crafting a Unique Program and Positioning Strategy

The paragraph discusses the steps to establish a unique position by evaluating the current position, defining the desired position, and crafting a unique program. It uses the example of 'Launchers' to show how to create a program that matches the desired positioning, emphasizing the importance of a clear, easy-to-understand, and shareable offer. The paragraph also highlights the need to close the messaging gap to ensure the market perceives the company as intended.

25:08

📚 The Six Characteristics of Effective Messaging

This section outlines the six characteristics that make messaging effective: clarity, audience focus, consistency, credibility, benefits orientation, and memorability. Each characteristic is explained with examples, such as Apple's 'Think Different' campaign and FedEx's overnight delivery promise. The importance of each trait in crafting a message that resonates with the audience and stands out in the market is emphasized.

30:09

🛑 Avoiding Common Positioning Traps

The paragraph warns against three common traps that can undermine effective positioning: the line extension trap, overcomplicating the message, and being too neutral. It advises against trying to be everything to everyone and stresses the importance of simplicity and having a clear stance in positioning. The paragraph provides strategies to avoid these pitfalls and maintain a strong, differentiated brand image.

35:11

🤝 Conclusion and Q&A on Positioning Strategy

The final paragraph wraps up the webinar by acknowledging the detailed framework provided and the examples shared. It addresses frequently asked questions about turning away business and how large agencies can implement the advice given. The speakers also discuss the importance of convincing stakeholders of the benefits of the positioning strategy through experiments and results. The paragraph concludes with an offer of positioning and messaging audits for participants and an invitation to apply for these spots.

Keywords

💡Unique Value Proposition

A unique value proposition (UVP) is a marketing term that refers to the unique benefits and attributes that a company or product offers to its customers, setting it apart from competitors. In the context of the video, developing a UVP is crucial for agencies to stand out in a crowded market and attract their ideal customers. The script emphasizes the importance of crafting a UVP that resonates with the target audience and positions the agency as an expert in a specific niche.

💡Positioning

Positioning in marketing is the process of defining how a product or service is perceived in the minds of its target consumers relative to its competitors. The video discusses the concept of positioning as a key strategy for agencies to establish a clear and differentiated place in the market. Effective positioning involves making a product stand out as different and better than alternatives, which is essential for attracting the right kind of customers.

💡Clutch

Clutch is a leading B2B service provider marketplace that helps businesses make better decisions by providing access to verified reviews and ratings of service providers. In the video, Clutch's mission is mentioned as empowering better business decisions, and the platform is used as a reference point for agencies to improve their profiles and results, leveraging Clutch badges and reviews to enhance their credibility.

💡Idea Client

An ideal client is a specific type of customer that a business is best suited to serve based on its expertise, services, and values. The video script highlights the importance of identifying an ideal client for agencies to focus their marketing efforts and messaging. By understanding who they typically work with and who they enjoy working with, agencies can tailor their services and communications to better attract and serve these clients.

💡Sales Cycle

A sales cycle refers to the stages a customer goes through from the initial awareness of a product or service to the final decision to purchase. The video discusses the goal of having shorter sales cycles, which is desirable because it indicates efficiency in the sales process and a reduced time to close deals. The script contrasts this with long sales cycles, which can be a result of ineffective positioning and messaging.

💡Competition

Competition in this context refers to other businesses or agencies that offer similar products or services, vying for the same customer base. The video emphasizes the negative impact of intense competition on margins and profitability, and how effective positioning can help agencies stand out and reduce the need for price-based competition.

💡Messaging

Messaging in marketing is the strategic communication of a brand's value proposition and unique selling points. The video script delves into the importance of crafting clear, consistent, and compelling messaging that resonates with the target audience. Effective messaging is crucial for converting prospects into customers and is a key component of a strong positioning strategy.

💡Desired Positioning

Desired positioning is the ideal perception a company wants to achieve in the minds of its target audience. The video script discusses the process of aligning an agency's actual positioning with its desired positioning, which involves moving from a generalist stance to a more specialized and focused approach. This helps agencies become the obvious choice for a specific type of client or service.

💡Avis Example

The Avis example in the video script is a classic case study in positioning. Avis, a car rental company, acknowledged their second-place position in the market and used this to their advantage by positioning themselves as 'trying harder'. This strategy helped Avis differentiate themselves from competitors and is used in the video to illustrate the power of leveraging current perceptions to achieve desired positioning.

💡Mobile App Development

Mobile app development is the process of creating software applications designed to run on mobile devices. In the video, mobile app development is used as an example industry to demonstrate how agencies can specialize and position themselves within a niche. The script discusses the benefits of focusing on a specific sector, such as education, to establish a strong and unique position in the market.

💡Outbound Positioning

Outbound positioning is a marketing strategy where a company actively communicates its value proposition and positioning to potential customers, rather than waiting for them to discover it. The video script suggests using outbound positioning to introduce a new or refined positioning to the market, helping agencies attract the right kind of clients and fill their sales pipeline.

Highlights

Introduction to the 'Grow with Clutch' webinar series, aimed at service providers to improve their Clutch profile and attract ideal customers.

Greg Carter and Floran Dude discuss the importance of a unique value proposition for standing out in a crowded market.

Understanding the default agency positioning and its impact on market perception.

The five common problems faced by agencies with default positioning, including inconsistent lead generation and long sales cycles.

The benefits of having a unique positioning in a niche, such as attracting the right kind of customers.

Effective positioning defined as being clear, different, and specific to make a product stand out.

Examples of strong positioning from real Clutch profiles in the healthcare sector.

The process of moving from actual to desired positioning in the market.

The six-step framework for crafting effective positioning and messaging.

Defining the target audience by answering questions about the type of client you can help the most and your preferred clients.

Analyzing the competition to find positioning gaps in the market.

Evaluating your current position and establishing your desired position through clear messaging.

Crafting a unique program that matches your positioning, such as Launchers' 'Rocket Program'.

Closing the messaging gap by aligning all marketing channels with your positioning.

Characteristics of good messaging, including clarity, audience focus, consistency, credibility, benefits orientation, and memorability.

The Avis example of leveraging current market perception to improve positioning.

Avoiding the line extension trap, overcomplicating, and being too neutral in positioning.

Strategies for large agencies with diverse clients, such as creating separate brands for different verticals.

Offer of 10 positioning and messaging audits for webinar participants to help refine their company's positioning.

Transcripts

hi and welcome to the grow with clutch

webinar make your agency irresistible a

six-step framework to develop your

unique value proposition stand out in a

crowded market and attract your ideal

customers the grow with clutch webinar

series was put together for all our

service provider Partners whether you

have well-defined positioning statements

or just getting started and for

providers in all different types of

verticals this series will provide you

guidance to improve your clutch profile

and the results you receive from it the

clutch mission is to empower Better

Business decisions as the leading

Marketplace of B2B service

providers my name is Greg Carter a

director of marketing here at clutch

with more than 10 years experience

building marketing campaigns that drive

results I'm joined here my my talented

colleague floran dude our demand

generation manager with experienced

crafting messaging for hundreds of

agencies and has performed countless

audits of our providers landing pages

with much of that feedback being geared

towards their positioning and messaging

and how it can be improved to convert

more prospects into

customers here's what you can expect

from joining today this webinar is

focused solely on positioning and the

process to better understand what that

means in the real world we'll Begin by

speaking to how many agencies position

themselves and how that default default

positioning affects how they are

perceived in the

marketplace then we'll cover what

effective positioning looks like with

examples from real clutch profiles but

then we'll get into the meat of the

topic how do I craft messaging that will

resonate with my audience we'll walk

through the six-step framework to how

you can Implement effective positioning

for your business last we'll cover

frequently asked questions we hear at

clutch before we get started I'd like to

ask you the audience a question after

improving your position

are you looking to reach more buyers and

clutch with an advertising

campaign with that I'll pass it to you

floran take it away all right so thanks

Greg I'm going to lead this webinar by

uh going over what is the current

default agency positioning and that's

unfortunately what 99% of agencies are

doing right now and I just want to set

the stage of what it is right now versus

where it could be in a couple months

just to show you that it's actually very

achievable to have a unique positioning

in your specific Niche so that you can

attract the right kind of customers to

your

agency so when you look at where 99% of

agencies stand right now they are facing

the five same problems they have in

consistent degeneration they have some

months where they are swamped with leads

they have some months where uh the

pipeline is completely empty they have

very long sale Cycles because the

customers are concerned about pricing

they have lots of price discussions lots

of back and forth they don't really have

an ideal client like when you ask them

who is your ideal client who do you

typically work with you get a variation

of we work for everyone and we do

everything for them um and the and as a

result because 99% of the agencies are

doing this you end up with a lot of

competition which gives Prospect a lot

of options to compare and so because

they compare they're going

to uh look at every single feature that

you provide and they're also going to

compare based on price and that's going

to hurt your margins that's going to

hurt your profitability and that's going

to hurt your process

overall now where you want to be is you

want to have a cons consistent

degeneration you want to be able to

attract to fill your pipeline with

qualified leads on a regular basis every

single month you also want to have

shorter sales Cycles like I don't think

anyone wants to spend three months

trying to close uh to close a deal

that's just not a good use of generation

and sales time uh that could be used for

other spanks you also want to have some

value discussions instead of price where

price is not really a factor people are

more concerned about what they're going

to get as a result of your service

rather than how much it's going to cost

uh you're going to work with only ideal

clients so if I ask you who do you work

with you have one very specific uh

client profile that you can uh share

with me and ultimately it's about being

the obvious choice to perform a specific

service to learn a specific program for

a specific kind of

client and so the bridge between where

you stand right now and where you should

where you want to be is positioning and

what we're going to see through this

webinar is that it's not actually that

complicated to have a unique positioning

if you follow the same process and so

the goal of this webinar is to share

with you this process in order to

establish high quality powerful

positioning so in order to establish

good quality positioning you first need

to know what effective positioning

is and so positioning it means making

your product stand out in people's minds

as different and better than

Alternatives so effective positioning it

meets free criteria it has to be clear

it has to be different and it has to be

specific to the point that it's very

easy for people who look at your

positioning to understand exactly

what you do who you do it for who you do

not do it for and what you don't do and

that's going to make you very memorable

and that's going to help you stay top of

mind with the right kind of

people so I'm going to share with you

two examples two real life examples from

uh service providers in clutch so both

are in the healthcare sector and both

are software developers and so you can

see here that but they have a strong

positioning because here they say we do

digital health and wellness web mobile

arvr we are software experts in the

fields of digital Health wellness and

fitness so that if I am a Healthcare

company and I'm looking for a software

developer my first feeling is these

people know what they're doing and they

can help me because they have experience

working with people like me however if I

am an education provider and I see this

um my first feeling is well these people

are not the right fit because they only

work with Healthcare company and that's

100% fine because as a service provider

you want to make sure that you attract

the customers that you want and that you

keep the customers that you don't want

away from use of that where you have a

very efficient Pipeline and you have

very efficient

operations same thing here I look at the

headline Healthcare software development

one of a few it companies globally with

focus and commitment to health healthare

software development that specializes in

creating digital Health Solutions

through premium IT services same thing

I'm a healthcare provider I look at this

I contact them right away because I'm

like okay I I need Healthcare specific

software these people have the highest

probability of meeting my requirements

and so they are the obvious choice as

far as I'm concerned if I am a

healthcare

provider this is where you want to be

you want to have the desired positioning

so this is where you have a very clear

idea of uh who you're going to Target

and how you're going to communicate with

them now the thing is right now

everybody has a positioning whether it's

deliberate or not everybody has a place

a position on the market in the minds of

the customers and that's the actual

positioning and the goal is going to be

to move your actual positioning so that

it ends up blending with your desired

positioning so let's say for example you

want to you're a software developer and

you want to position yourself as the um

the expert for uh Healthcare software

development then you want to move from

your actual positioning which might be

to be a generalist towards talking

specifically about Healthcare and

targeting specifically Healthcare

companies so that way the your actual

positioning and your desired positioning

end up merging and you do that for your

messaging now the messaging has to do

two things it has to be clear of course

because a confused Prospect never closes

and they not going to take the time to

understand but it also has to be

realistic which is why it's not a

overnight process it's a process that

takes time and that might take several

months or several years in order to

materialize and I'm going to give you an

example on the next

slide which is the Avis example so Avis

is a really big uh car rental company

here in the US uh and in the 1970s their

positioning the positioning that they

were trying to have where we are number

one we are the best um car rental

companies in the

US so that was their desired positioning

the problem was it was not realistic

because the market did not agree with

that positioning they said no you're not

number one Herz is number one you're

just

pretending but they still wanted to be

seen as that high quality kind of

Premium car rental experience so what

they did is that instead of saying we're

number one and kind of like living a pip

dream what they did is they acknowledged

their current positioning and they used

that current perception that people had

of them in order to crystallize their

Desir positioning which was us to be a

premium high quality provider and they

did that by saying we're just we're not

number one we're number two but we try

harder because we can't afford dirty

ashray we can't afford half empty gas

tanks we can't afford War wipers unwash

cars low tires or anything else and so

that way they were able to uh create a

movement inside the uh within the car

rental industry because people trusted

the fact that they were number two but

they also trusted the fact that because

they were number two they were a better

alternative they were the better

alternative to hers and as a result they

saw significant growth at the end of the

1970s and the early

1980s so now now that we know what good

positioning is how do you actually go

about creating it and so he's going to

take six steps

so the first step is going to be

defining your target audience then we're

going to analyze the competition we're

going to evaluate your current position

then establish your desired position

craft your unique program and finally

close the messaging Gap so I know it's

it sounds intimidating it sounds like a

lot of work so we're going to break it

down step by step so that way you have

all the guidance that you need in order

to apply it to your own company and be

able to go on on a strong positioning

journey and so to help you grasp the

concept and see how it works in real

life we actually created a fake uh

mobile app development agencies called

launchers so it's a mobile app

development company based in Washington

DC uh launching app MVPs for at tech

companies in 30 days or less and so

we're going to use it as an example to

create strong positioning

so the first step is going to be about

defining your target audience and that

ultimately consists of answering two

questions first question is what type of

client can you help the most and the

second question is who are your

preferred types of clients okay because

you want ultimately want to help your

client succeed so you want to have a

very high success rate because that's

just uh the name of a game when you're

run an agency

but you also want to have uh clients

that you enjoy working with because

ultimately it has to be it has to be a

pleasure to go to work every day and

work with your clients and so in order

to identify these people in order to

answer those two questions you want to

consider three different factors the

first factor is going to be the

demographics so demographics is

everything every objective piece of

information that you have about the

person so we can talk about the age the

location uh like where they live what

job they do what's their job title uh

what's their seniority Etc like

everything that's

objective the next step is going the

next factor to look at is going to be

the psychor graphics so psychographics

is everything that's going on inside

their head so what do they fear what do

they want what do they think what do

they perceive how open are they to

change how do they perceive risk

um so that way you have a very clear

idea of what's going on inside their

head what their thoughts are and that

way when it comes to creating the

messaging you'll be able to be a lot

more um precise in uh addressing their

specific thought

patterns and then the third uh factor to

consider is going to be the thermal

Graphics so thermal Graphics is all the

information that you have about the

company where they work so it can be the

company size can be the industry can be

their specific business bus goals their

business fres is the company growing is

a specific Department within the company

growing or shrinking uh have they met

any funding event Etc and so by

answering all these questions you have a

clear picture of who your ideal uh

customer is and so that's going to serve

as the base to position

yourself and uh to position yourself

develop your messaging as well as uh

adjust your lead generation

strategy so in the case of

launchers we're going to Target Founders

and CTO who are based in the US Eastern

Time Zone because it's a big enough

market we're small company we're based

in Washington DC so we're going for

convenience here uh we are an early

stage company uh we work with early

stage companies so we want to make sure

that we work with people who are Risk

Takers but not only that but also deeply

invested in the success of the companies

in the success of their clients and they

are deeply invested in those successes

because they are scared of failing in

public and they're scared of running out

of fund so ultimately we're not looking

for just any kind of person to work with

we're looking for people who are

passionate about what they do and are

strongly motivated to make it work

because they do not want to fail that's

their biggest fear and then in terms of

a company profile we're looking for

people for companies with fewer than 20

people in the education sector around

series a funding because that's where

the MVP would make the most sense and

they need a MVP to have a scalable proof

of concept for their investors and early

clients now that we know our ideal

customer profile we now want to know

what is the market like so if you look

at the market as a whole like that big

that big blurb where do our competitors

fit and so you want to know where they

are right now so you can identify the

open positions which are the white

circles right here and you want to find

positioning gaps so that way you can

insert yourself into those gaps and

create a small Monopoly in a corner of a

market so there's three ways that you

can find the positioning gaps the first

one is through looking at unders solved

problems so it's problems that your ICP

has that your ideal customers have but

that your no one in the market is able

to solve effectively so those are unders

soled problems if you're able to solve

that problem consistently you're going

to have a very strong

position the second way to look for

position gaps is by looking at

underserved icps so let's say uh for

example if we take mobile app

development you might have a ton of

mobile app Developers for for uh SAS

companies you might have a ton of mobile

app Developers for Education you might

have a ton of app developers that kind

of do everything but you might have very

few mobile app developers that take care

of healthcare companies and as a result

if you can position yourself as the

mobile app developer for uh heare

companies then you're going to have a

very strong position and you're going to

have a mini Monopoly in the market and

then the third way to look at for

positioning gaps is to look at poor

Solutions meaning that the status quo

right now is not able to um solve a

problem that your customers are facing

effectively and therefore they need

something radically different you need a

radically different approach in order to

solve that problem more

effectively and so I'm uh I'm going to

walk through V process of surveying the

competitive landscape with launchers to

show you that it's actually not that

difficult to find those Market gaps so

what I did is I went on clutch about two

weeks ago and I went through a um a

pruning process in order in the mobile

app developer field so I was first

looking for mobile app developers on

clutch it turns out there there are

37474 mobile app Developers on clutch

worldwide so then I narrowed down to uh

looking for mobile app developers

specifically in the United States and so

I went down to a little more than 6,000

then I went down further and looked for

mobile app developers specifically for

the education field and I found 8811 so

you see we went from 37,000 to 811 with

just two filters I went down further how

about mobile app Dev Vel opers targeting

Washington DC

302 and so if I blend two if I look at

mobile app Developers for education in

Washington DC you only have 40 people

and by the way out of those 40 you that

includes some companies that are based

in Philadelphia and New York that are

also advertising uh that are being

listed in for Washington DC directory so

if you are an education company and

you're looking for MVP for a mobile app

then and you're based in DC you want to

work with local service provider we end

up being essentially the only ones SP

and so it's going to be very easy for us

to attract these people them

reliably so now that you know the

competitive landscape you want to start

measuring the positioning Gap so you

want to have a clear idea of how do my

customers see me right now and you want

to be dead honest with yourself because

remember that in order to um to

establish your positioning it has to be

realistic your the market has to believe

you and so the best way to do that is

just to talk to your current customers

um and talk to prospects and just see

how they see you if they had to use uh a

sentence or two sentences to describe

you how would they describe you and

that's going to help you understand your

current position and so that way you'll

know your starting

point so for launchers we are a rapid

mobile app uh MVP maker that's pretty

much what we want in terms of a desired

position we want to be the rapid mobile

app MVP maker for Education companies in

DC so you can see we have a positioning

Gap it's not the biggest one but it's

still there so we want want to First

acknowledge our current position and

then move it towards our desired

position next you want to establish your

position okay so if you want to dive

deeper into the desired position that

you want to take you want to consider

three different three different

variables so the first thing is your

ideal customer profile can you

specialize on a specific client type so

for example examp if you start working

for everybody can you just decide to

work with haircare companies or fintex

just one the other way you can

differentiate yourself is by solving a

specific problem so for example instead

of just making mobile apps for all kinds

of use cases you could make a app MVP

like an early stage app for example or

you could even do like project salvaging

uh and then the third one is the point

of view can you solve an existing

problem differently through the

mainstream and express a very strong

opinion about where the market is going

where the industry is going and express

it in your

positioning so in the case of

launchers we're going to narrow down our

IDE your customer profiles to at tech

company Founders who are either looking

to raise funds or who have just raised

funds from outside investors in terms of

a specific problem we're going to build

a high functioning scalable MVP quickly

as a foundation for vir grow so it's

going the MVP is going to be the

foundation for the app that they're

going to develop that they're going to

build down the line and then in terms of

a point of view we use the rocket

program which is the fact that we use

proven templates for the education

sector in order to create high

performing MVPs in a month or less

through uh some degree of customization

but minimi minimal customization

so once you have that you want to build

your program you want to build your

offer to match this positioning because

obviously talking about what you do is

one thing but you actually want to back

it up with facts and with a robust

program uh to match this position and so

ultimately you want to design it to by

answering fre questions how can you

better serve your ICP how can you focus

on a specific problem and focus on

solving it and how can you communicate

your point of view through that program

and so ultimately your any program it

has to be easy to explain it has to be

easy to understand it has to be easy to

share and it has to be named so that way

it's easy for you to talk about it and

it's easy for other people to talk about

it as

well so in the case of launchers we're

going to create the rocket program so

it's a proven program to build and

launch scalable education mobile app

MVPs for early stage at Tech ventures in

30 days or less so we see that the ICP

is very clear we see that the problem is

very clear we see that the promise is

very clear and we have a a very clear

point of view because we don't just have

like a mobile app MVP development uh

service we have a V rocket program and

so that gives a perception that this is

something proprietary this is something

unique and that crystallizes our

positioning

and then once you have that once you

have all the elements then you can start

closing the uh messaging Gap so the goal

is to make sure that the market sees you

the way that you want to be seen and so

you want to slide your current position

to the point that it blends with the

desired position and so you do that for

your social content you do that for your

emails your website your landing page

your clutch profile your social profiles

you want it to be consistent across the

board so that way the perception of your

the perception of your company in the

market starts to change and you start

being seen the way you want to be

seen

so what makes good messaging so good

messaging has six

characteristics the first one is the

fact that it's clear and concise so you

want to be able to express your

messaging in one sentence you want to be

able to summarize it in one sentence so

for example if you take think different

from Apple you look at all the

communications their ads their

documentation their websites their

emails everything was centered on the

concept of thing

different the second one is it has to be

audience Focus so remember that your

audience is consists of human beings as

human beings we care about ourselves we

care about our problems so you want your

message to speak about your audience

your audience challenges and their

desired outcomes uh so for example

instead of saying that um you know your

iPod has 128 gigabytes of data and that

it's the best thing in the world Apple

talked about the fact that it's 1,000

songs in your pocket which answers

directly the paino of having a CD player

that you have to carry around and

the third one is that it has to be

consistent so remember that we have

different channels that we can use in

order to expressive positioning and you

want all of them to share the same

message because for example if your

clutch profile says that you are uh

focusing on uh education technology

companies but then your landing page

talks about uh being able to serve

everyone there's going to be a

disconnect that's going to confuse your

prospect and that's going to um reduce

the amount of trust that you get from

them and that's going to hurt your

results and your perception on the

market next you want it to be credible

so ultimately you want your audience to

agree that messaging is correct so the

perfect example is what we saw earlier

with Avis saying we try hard okay we're

not number one uh the market doesn't see

us as number one we agree with the

market but we try harder and the one

thing that you can do in order to uh

enhance your

credibility if you want to have more of

an authority based positioning like

claiming like centered around your

expertise you can use your clutch Badges

and you can use your clutch reviews to

show that you have a strong level of

expertise and you can even use them in

order

to uh to identify your Niche and to

ident to claim your Authority in that

specific nich so for

example if we

are uh if we are targeting education

companies for mobile app development

we're going to use clutch badges that

highlight the fact that we are expert

mobile app developers and more

specifically that we are expert app

developers in the education sector and

we're going to use for clutch reviews

we're going to highlight the ones that

uh speak directly to our target audience

so in our case education

companies um the next one is you want

the uh you want the messaging to be

benefits oriented so you want the

audience to be able to visualize the

outcome so here perfect example is FedEx

saying uh when it absolutely positively

has to be there overnight we've all

experienced a situation where we send a

package we send an envelope where we it

has to arrive to destination no matter

what and so by through this positioning

FedEx was able to help us visualize the

outcome that we're looking for and

they've been able to be very consistent

through well and so you can do that for

your own agency by leveraging your

clutch reviews to Showcase how your

clients can benefit through a program uh

through from your program by showing the

outcome that past clients that are just

like them have have been able to achieve

by going through your

program and then the last one you want

it to be memorable so it has to be easy

to remember so you remain top of mind

and then people can talk about you

easily so you have the example of slack

where work happens um and you so you

hear where work happens you know that

it's

slack so here we have the example of

launchers so what we're going to do and

that's going to be the last part of of

this webinar we're going to

turn launchers messaging from weak to

irresistible and we're going to make it

irresistible for the right kind of

company so this is the uh the the

messaging that we're going to start with

the number one mobile app development

agencies so we know what it is we know

that they provide mobile app development

services we don't know who they

provideed

we don't really have a promise we don't

know what outcome they're going to

produce as a result of the program we

have zero proof and we don't have a name

for the

program so let's make it

better so the number one mobile app

development Agency for Education

companies so that's a little better okay

because we know that we know what they

do but we also know who they do it for

they do it for Education

companies if we take it to the next

level the number one mobile app

development uh Agency for Education

companies and then you back it up with

some clutch relevant clutch Badges and

ratings so then all of a sudden you add

an element of proof to it okay uh clutch

badges we don't give them we don't hand

them out to anyone the ratings we you

know we only use verified reviews uh

that we're able to to verify sometimes

we even collect reviews ourselves uh so

if you have those that means that you

know what you're doing and so the fact

that you add your clutch Badges and

ratings show your buyer that you are an

elite provider and that backs up the

fact that you are the number one mobile

app development agency or at least you

are a very good mobile app development

agency can we make it better though of

course so the next one is build your

education mobile app with Club Badges

and rating so here's little

different uh it's a little different but

it still checks all the boxes because

you have mobile app development services

that's what we do we do it for Education

companies the promise and that's a big

upgrade is that they're going to get a

mobile app it's you know it might seem s

explanatory but nothing is implied in

landing pages you want to make

everything as explicit as possible

because you want to avoid any

misunderstanding so the promise is to

get a mobile app and then you still have

the proof from the clutch Badges and

ratings let's take it to the next level

build your education mobile app MVP so

here I'm I'm specifying the promise I'm

not going to build like any mobile app

I'm going to build your apps

MVP let's take it to the next level

build your education mobile app MVP in

30 days or less so here I'm saying okay

I'm not building MVP because you have

you have lots of you have lots of

providers who can build MVPs for you

what makes me different is that I can do

it in 30 days or less and I have clutch

Badges and ratings to back myself so you

know that I can

deliver let's take it to the next level

so here I specifying for promise even

further so instead of just having a

mobile app MVP in 30 days or less you're

going to get a market ready mobile app

MVPs in 30 days or less because the pro

the whole um value proposition is build

and launch your education mobile app MVP

in 30 days or less backed up by flge

Badges and

ratings let's take it to even the next

level build and launch your education

mobile app MVP in 30 days or less even

if you have zero developers on

staff with clutch badget and ratings so

here I'm specifying further who I'm

targeting I'm not just targeting

education companies or attech companies

I'm targeting attech companies that do

not have a development team and so

pretty much our service going to be an

add-on service is going to be in

completely outsourced development team

for them but so it's going if you are an

education companies with no development

team you're going to feel that this is

exactly for you because it the the

messaging very

proposition preempts the objection that

you might have which is yeah but I don't

have a devopment te so this is an even

stronger piece of

messaging we can still make it better

though so the mobile rocket program

build and launch your education mobile

app MVP in 30 days or less even if you

have zero developers on stale backed by

clutch Badges and rating so here I'm

giving the program a name and this is

very powerful because instead of just

trying to remember and describe what

what your program does they just have to

remember a name and human beings we are

hardwired to remember names that's what

and not not only we remember names but

also we value names a lot more so uh for

example why do we feel so emotional

about uh having to put down our dog

because our dog has a

name and that's unlike for example a

random stray dog we don't feel as bad

putting them down down simply

because simply because they are nameless

to us so we don't have that same

emotional attachment to them so this is

what a name is going to do for the

program and that's going to make it a

lot easier for you to talk about it and

it's going to be to make it a lot easier

for your customers to talk about

it and so what it's going to do is that

it's going to close the gap between your

current position and your desired

position and so that's what we're going

to do with launchers we're going to talk

about that we build and launch Mobil

MVPs for Education companies in 30 days

or less even if they have zero

developers on staff and we're going to

do it for with the mobile rocket program

so this is what is going to do and then

over time the current position and the

Desir position are going to mix and

they're going to superimpose each

other

now the

process is very robust this is the exact

proc process that successful agencies

and successful companies worldwide go

through in order to establish their

positioning but there are three traps

that you need to avoid the first one is

going to be the line extension trap so

it consists of trying to position

yourself too broadly so having a broad

ICP uh trying to solve generalized

problems and usually where it comes from

is you will have uh a customer come to

you like let's say in the case of

launcher it's an ettech company and they

will come to you saying hey I have this

uh friend of mine who is doing fintech

and needs a mobile app MVP in 30 days or

less and the mistake here to say oh yeah

fintech is kind of like attech I'll do

it anyways and that's going to be a

problem because fintech and attech are

not the same thing so you're going to

complexify your uh your program

and so you're going to have more moving

parts and you're going to have more uh

opportunities for errors and the whole

um reliability of your process is going

to go down and so

by grabbing opportunities that are kind

of adjacent to your Ideal Market and

slowly expanding your target market

because of that you're going to fall

into the line extension trap because

you're going to over time end up like a

list company once more and so the entire

process that you went through of really

trimming down your ICP to really focus

on your best clients will have been for

nothing the next mistake is going to be

over complicating uh which essentially

means being unable to explain your

positioning in one sentence if you're

not able to explain what you do and who

you do it for and how you do it in one

sentence uh that your your partner or

your children are able to understand

then your positioning is too complicated

okay so you want to really simplify it

so that anyone can understand it in one

sentence or less the third Pitfall is

being to

neutral uh what do I mean by that is

trying to please everyone on the market

if you positioning is done right you are

crystal clear about what is right in

your opinion and what is wrong in your

opinion and that's going to help people

evaluate you in a very yes or no kind of

fashion I agree with them and they are

the right sort of provider for me or

they are I don't agree with them and

they are not the right kind of provider

for me you really want to have this

dichotomy in your messaging uh because

that's going to make you interesting

that's going to make you stand out

that's going to make you different and

that's going to help you attract the

right kind of customer so make sure that

you stay away from the linic technal

trap no matter how attractive this may

be make sure that you keep it

positioning simple and make sure that

you are not pleasing everyone just make

sure that you have your opinions and

that you stand by whatever you're

thinking thanks so much floran for

walking us through that six-step

framework and for providing

a number of examples not only through

launchers our fake company but also the

marketing anecdotes that you shared I I

really liked the Avis example we try

harder I think that's such an

interesting marketing campaign that

really feeds into the exact positioning

that you were speaking to so really

great job we do have some frequently

asked questions that I wanted to share

and ask but before we get to that I

wanted to ask the audience again now

that we've gone through

identified what bad positioning could

potentially look like what good

positioning does look like is the next

step to move forward with greater

exposure on clutch if you wouldn't mind

taking a moment to answer the survey

that should be popping up

now thanks for that and so getting into

the questions one of the first ones that

we hear is when we're talking about your

positioning and really identifying which

markets that you should be going after

and talking about best fit companies but

then also companies that aren't a great

fit are you asking agencies that may be

struggling to land more clients to

actually Turn Away

business uh yes and the reason is it

might seem crazy especially if you're

really in the ropes and and you're

struggling to make uh to meet payroll uh

and you know it's very tempting to try

to grab every piece of business that you

can and uh you know in terms of

short-term strategy for survival that

works but longterm you kind of killing

yourself because you're keeping yourself

from developing a very efficient

scalable process that's going to allow

you to not only attract more customers

because of your strong positioning but

also to serve them a lot more itively

because instead of having a myriad of

process to solve a myriad of problems

you're going to have a single process

that uh solves one specific problem and

that you can duplicate it well um

so I know it's very tempting to try to

go after every single opportunity but

you want to be very deliberate in terms

of what opportunities you're going for

and uh you know you might be asking me

as a follow work is like well yeah

that's great but how do I Kickstart the

process um I would recommend to first of

all update your clutch profile to really

highlight the new positioning that you

you want to update your website update

your landing pages so that everything is

consistent and then just start doing

something called outbound positioning

yourself as a specializ company rather

than as a generaliz company and you'll

be you'll be very surprised about how

many companies are actively looking for

specialist p just could not find them

because everybody that reaches out to

them is just a

generalist well since you just preempted

my next question I'm GNA flip the script

on you Florian and ask another one in

the same vein but for the different type

of organization and that's what if

they're a large agency with dozens of

different types of clients in different

Industries how would you expect them to

implement this type of advice

uh so that's a really good question

because yeah I mean what happens if you

have a big

agency and you are uh you have all these

clients you have all this experience

like how do you actually segment it and

the way I recommend going about it is to

create separate brands for separate uh

separate vertical so for example if you

are I mean I kept talking about mobile

development agency so let's let's talk

about digital marketing for a change um

you know let's say that you do uh growth

marketing services and you know you do

growth marketing Services through uh

Facebook ads Google ads and SEO and

that's kind of what your agency does

well you can have one vertical for

Facebook ads you can have one vertical

for Google ads you can have one vertical

for SEO and each of these varable has a

separate branding so that way they look

like three different companies but they

actually the same one so it's kind of

like having different branches

specialized in different Services you

can also segment it differently by

having one specific brand that caters to

uh premium Fortune 500 clients and then

have another brand that will take care

of more like scale ups and then a third

brand that takes care more of startups

so ultimately you want to segment by a

customer profile so that way they're

perceived like they're talking to a

provider that understands their exact

problem because for example if I'm a

startup I have an entire set of problems

that a Fortune 500 company doesn't have

so if I speak with an agency that

highlight the fact that they work with 4

500 companies that's great but I'm not

sure that they're going to understand

what exactly I'm going through because I

don't really get the feeling that they

have the expertise that I'm looking for

working with startups

I think that's a really interesting take

in how you can grow your business in a

different manner while

still really positioning yourselves with

different clients with different needs

um but the product itself isn't too

different that's really

interesting for this to actually work I

think you're G to have to do a really

good job convincing your co-founder or

potentially higher level employees that

this is a good idea how would you go

about doing that

okay so so yeah that's that's a great

question because uh yeah if it's usually

you know positioning is a big decision

obviously because it uh kind of changes

what your company is and uh who you are

uh so you definitely want to get a buy

from your co-founders you want to get a

buy from your higher upset company um

and so the best way to do it is to set

up an experiment because chances are

they are aware of the fact that you reg

generation is not where it's supposed to

be and so running a quick experiment

where you take a Subs segment of your

Market uh you know can be a specific

audience can be a specific problem that

you're solving and you canot create a

specific program in order to fit that

using the framework that we just talked

about uh and then you test it out you

know you create a separate website you

create separate email addresses and

everything and then you do some cold

outbound and test the hypothesis to see

if it works if it resonates and then if

you find that you're getting some

traction from it then

uh you know it might be worth

considering a a deeper uh a deeper

positioning

rework uh in order to reposition your

agency

to uh scale the results from the

experiment and actually that that takes

us to the bonus of a

webinar uh we're going I'm going to

offer at 10 positioning and messaging

audits to participants to this webinar

so that way I can provide you with some

guidance on how I would reposition your

company based on your best offer your

best um your best ICP so that you have

can have more clarity in your messaging

and you can attract the right kind of

customers in order to have a predictable

pipeline to have a full Pipeline with

ideal customers that you can get results

with and that you enjoy working with so

if you would like to join the program if

you would like to apply uh you can click

on the link that we will send you

together with a recording of a webinar

and then we will take 10 applicants and

we I will go through an entire

positioning uh

positioning re redo uh for

you well thank you so much Floren for

going through and offering the 10 spots

to get a positioning audit I think our

audience is really going to enjoy that

so make sure to uh click that link and

fill out the questionnaire when you

receive the email tomorrow we will send

the webinar recording along with the

slides that you saw today uh tomorrow

morning and you will be able to watch

this again and refer to it while you're

going through any type of positioning

updates we really appreciate you joining

us have a great day